Men’s recruit: Trentini (Upper Dublin) optimistic as Jacksonville men’s team gears for first season of action

Freshman attackman Jimmy Trentini says he really doesn’t know what to expect when the Jacksonville men’s lacrosse team kicks off its program Feb. 6 with a home game against powerful North Carolina.

Trentini, an Upper Dublin graduate, is one of 35 freshmen on the 45-man roster at Jacksonville, which is jumping right into Division I play in its first season of action. But Trentini believes the Dolphins will be competitive.

“Fall Ball went very well,” said Trentini, who was back home in the Philly area last week and participated in the inaugural Upper Dublin Lacrosse Day. “The kids started clicking right away and the chemistry started coming. We have 35 freshmen and a few transfers; everybody’s young and we’re a little undersized. We’re just working hard to be the best lacrosse players we can be.”

Trentini is one of four Philly freshmen at Jacksonville. The others are midfielders Dan Jones (Penncrest) and Jack Morrison (Lower Merion) and attackman Joe O’Rourke (Haverford School). Also from the region is freshman Phil Ventresca, a Salesianum School (DE) grad from Wilmington.

At Upper Dublin last year, Trentini scored 39 goals and helped the Cardinals win their third straight Suburban One American Conference championship and advance to the second round of the District 1 tournament. He was a First Team All-League and Honorabe Mention All-Phillylacrosse.com pick for the second consecutive year. In 2008, he was the conference MVP.

One reason Trentini chose Jacksonville was the Dolphins coach, Matt Kerwick, the former coach at Hobart.

“I heard about Jacksonville from my club team, LB3 and coach Liam Banks, and I went down to visit in March and I really liked the campus,” said Trentini, who is majoring in Business. “I liked coach Kerwick and I believed in what he believed in.”

Trentini said the Jacksonville players understand there may be bumps in the first season, especially with games against Top 20 teams UNC, Duke, Bucknell, Hofstra and Denver. But the team has a simple goal: build and improve.

“The focus is on the team all coming together,” he said. “Everybody is starting to come together as a unit. Most of us are younger mostly freshman and we’re new to everything.

“We’re all learning together. Since we’re all new to D1, we’re not 100 percent sure how it’s going to be and how fast the game is. It is all moving very quick; fast, fast, fast, go, go, go.”